"For if by the one mans offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).
What is righteousness in that verse? A "gift." "Their righteousness is from Me, says the Lord" (Isa. 54:17). He who receives it as the gift that it is, receives what? Righteousness. According to what? God's idea of righteousness.
Will He give us anything other than that which is righteousness in His own sight and according to His own mind? No. Then he who does not receive the righteousness of God as the free gift of God, does He have it? No, and he cannot have it, because it is a gift of God.
And therefore it being of God, and He giving it of His own gift, it is left to me to get it in His own way according to His own idea. The genuine article is the righteousness of God alone.
Don't you see that there can be no room for a single thread of human invention? What ample provision the Lord has made that we may have the perfect robe which He Himself has woven! It is the righteousness of God itself! It will make us complete now, and in the time of the plagues, and in every other time, and throughout all eternity.
What is the latter rain? Righteousness. Are we in the time of the latter rain [1893]? Yes. What are we to ask for? The teaching of righteousness according to righteousness. Where is it to come from? Heaven. Can we have it now? Yes.
Then the latter rain being the righteousness of God, His message of righteousness, the loud cry that is to come down from heaven--we are now in the time of it, we are to ask for it, and receive it.
Then what is to hinder us from receiving the latter rain now? Unbelief." [1]
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